As a Funeral Celebrant, when a person passes away, my first step is to sit with the family to learn all I can about their loved one to tell their life story at a Celebration of Life. It most often becomes a tactile experience. Not...
Well, my humans couldn’t have picked a better name for me ~ cuz boy did I live it! The world shone a little brighter the day me and all my brothers and sisters arrived on Sept. 13, 2006. There were about 8 of us with me, by...
With conviction in his voice and a wisdom cultivated by his Papa, Cameron knew exactly how many layers of his 18 year old self were buttoned up by his grandfather, his Papa. The first 10 years of his life were void of a father figure in...
Do you ever have this burning desire to let people know who you really are? Your passions, interests, talents, accomplishments, fears and phobias? We all do! Our trail of everything we call “our life” is a story. Each life story is a last rite of passage that...
Jason was born in the wee hours of a spring morning. His curly auburn locks, green eyes tinged with innocence and a heart filled with forgiveness would be challenged even before his first steps were taken. As the youngest in a family already mosaiced with father...
Alicia was born to make the world a better place in fearless ways. Since her early adolescence she had a penchant for office supplies. While most kids were squirreling away candy, Alicia was stock-piling labels, post-it notes and highlighters for a life she could have never...
Her twins, Danielle and Daniel, were born to Mom Daniella when Daniella she was 16. Everyone always laughed at their names but Mom said she chose them to keep them close. It worked. Daniella went from honour roll and varsity team captain to a young girl...
Have you been to a funeral service where your loved one’s name was rarely mentioned? Perhaps you walked away feeling numb, even more lost, than when you walked in. Your loved one has simply vanished into a cookie cutter ritual. But what about the family...
Jack will turn 85 next week. This is the first birthday he will spend without Olivia since they were 9. They grew up across the street from each other in a rural farming community where shovelling “$&!!”, as Jack put it, was their expertise. Olivia was...
What a wonderful term. I could envision it as I told the story of this remarkable, gone too soon, gentleman. Life had been not always fair to David but he had the character that was wired for the, as we say, “attitude of gratitude.” Having lost...